Guns, guns everywhere

Illegal importation of guns and firearms is thriving in the country despite efforts to curb the illicit trade, Assistant Editor, Joke Kujenya, Innocent Duru and Nwanosike Onu report.

AFTER years of living in Ohio in the United States of America, Adebiyi (surname withheld), decided to return to Nigeria. “But I was afraid,” he confessed to The Nation reporter. “We hear of armed robbers storming peoples’ homes to claim all your hard-earned labour brandishing their guns to make you paranoid and such stuff; so, I was apprehensive. I had to protect my life, my family’s and the much we’ve worked so very hard to put together. That’s why I have been asking lots of Nigerians both in USA and within Nigeria if I am allowed to have my own gun. If yes, how do I get a gun, which type can I possess as a civilian and how do I get it licensed, among others? I have put this same question to my family that has been on my case to come and settle in Nigeria. Without this assurance, I tell you, I am not coming to Nigeria just yet,” he declared.

“Like many others, the young man, Adebiyi’s has more questions than answers,” said a prominent security expert based in Lagos. “Yet, we won’t blame anyone for wanting to ensure his or her survival with some ‘steel’, as they call it. It’s not out of place for him to ask to ensure his life. And I am sure that people in your kind of job, as reporters, won’t mind to carry one as the current situation calls for such especially with our porous security system,” he told The Nation.

Recently, Abiodun Odiri and Ohikhuemen Alex, two suspects, who, according to a police statement, specialise in the making of local arms were nabbed at their ‘factory’ by the Edo State Police Command based on a tip off. They were believed to be responsible for the supply of lethal weapons to armed robbers, kidnappers and other criminal gangs in the South-West, South-South and South-East regions.

At the time their factory was raided, many items such as double-barrelled gun pipes, two double-barrelled gun butts, three single gun butts, nine single-barrelled gun pipes, seven expended cartridges, one drilling machine and a bag of weed suspected to be Indian hemp, were retrieved from them.

A security expert who spoke in confidence said, the “influx of illegal arms within the country is a threat to Nigeria’s economy and unity.” He cited reports of seizure of large cache of arms through porous borders such as Seme, Idi-Iroko and a few other routes.

On Monday, July 30, 2012, a team of the Joint Task Force (JTF), patrolling Daban Masara, a border town with Chad in Munguno Local Government area of Borno State, intercepted a blue Hilux vehicle with registration number Yobe NGU19XA. The vehicle had reportedly left Bada/Daban in Borno State enroute Maiduguri, the state capital. When stopped, the JTF discovered that the vehicle was loaded with heaps of palm leaves used to cover eight rocket-propelled launchers, 10 rocket bombs, 10 rocket chargers, two AK-47 rifles, 13 magazines with six rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition and a Bank PHB ATM card.

On getting closer to the vehicle to accost its occupants, the men in the vehicle, believed to be members of the Boko Haram insurgency group, opened fire on men of the JTF. This led to a bloody exchange of gunfire.

The proliferation of illegal arms in the country has become worrisome both at home and abroad. A 2011 Small Arms Survey by the UN disclosed that about 875million of such weapons produced by over 1,000 companies in 100 countries are in circulation worldwide. The report noted: “Nigeria’s share of between seven and eight million in West Africa puts it in the league of countries with high prevalence of illegal firearms like South Africa, Yemen, and the United States where the quantity of small arms in civilian hands is 5.95 million, 11.5

In a National Crime and Safety Survey 2012 on Firearms and Gun Ownership in Nigeria conducted by CLEEN Foundation (CF), a justice sector reform organisation, 50per cent of those polled believe that gun ownership was necessary for self-defence or personal protection. Thirty-nine per cent said it was needful for hunting, while twenty-five per cent feel gun ownership was needful for protection of their property. Another 19 per cent said it would help in protection against wild animal attack. However, 11 per cent support it for protection at work, and 10 per cent do not know why anyone would need a gun, while the last set of seven per cent represent those who believe it is traditional to possess guns.

Speaking on what qualifies one to own a gun or any ammunition, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Lagos Police Command, Mrs. Ngozi Braide, said there are three categories of firearms which are personal firearms, muzzle loading and prohibited, which involve dynamite, rocket launchers, military guns such as- AK47, pistols, revolvers etc.

The spate of seizure of illegal arms and ammunition at the nation’s border posts has raised concern over the safety of citizens and the porous nature of the borders. For instance, a Briton was arraigned in the United Kingdom for shipping of 80,000 rifles and pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition illegally to Nigeria. The shipment included 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 9mm pistols.

The man, Gary Hyde, reportedly shipped the huge arm cache without receiving permission from the relevant government department in the UK. But he did not act alone. His partner was one Karl Kleber, a German national based in Germany as the court was told. They acted as middle-men between two Polish companies acting for the Nigerian buyers and Chinese companies. Both men received commission payments for the deals totalling around $1.3m (£840,000 or N351 million). Concerns for such illegal gun and firearms importation grow as Ghanaian authorities also intercepted a truck loaded with arms and ammunitions heading to Nigeria. The weapons of destruction included pump action rifles and live rounds.

During one of the recent routine checks along the Lagos-Badagry Express Road; a team of officers of customs, the Nigerian Immigration Service and a host of others intercepted a truck-load of electronic gadgets under which the importers had concealed heaps of weapons in bags of beans. All the men were eventually nabbed and handed over to the police for onward prosecution.

A booming business

Arms smuggling is currently described as a flourishing enterprise in Nigeria, a nation that is engaged, among others, in an ongoing mêlée against the Islamist insurgency in the north, oil thefts and piracy in the South-East parts of the country. Offences of illegal arms importation are said to be contrary to the provisions of the Firearms Act, Cap F28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and the Customs and Excise Management 2002.

It is reported that within the past thirty years, Nigeria has seen increasingly rapid advances in all form of social vices. Among such, in the heat of most political campaigns, hoodlums are a common feature. Reportedly, political aspirants and candidates employ the use of street urchins to checkmate their opponents. In the same vein, religious violence, armed robbery, pen robbery and recently kidnapping are commonplace.

This rise in crime wave has led many to clamour for citizens to be allowed to carry guns. In fact, in some states and towns across the country procurement of firearms is as easy as buying a pair of shoes.

For instance, Anambra State has become one of the dreaded states in the country in terms of crime due to majority of the citizens’ disregard for value system.

Sale of arms is thriving in the state so much that if to procure a gun all one needs to do is to simply talk to one of the boys hanging around the numerous markets in the state and give them the codes for the specific types of guns needed. For instance, bullets are termed ‘groundnuts’, ‘awka’ or ‘kala, to mention a few.

As a result, illicit guns and firearms have flooded virtually all the markets and homes in the state. Many link the proliferation of arms to the aftermath of the Nigeria Civil War and the operation of quasi military outfits such as the disbanded Onitsha Traders Association (OTA), Onitsha Market Amalgamated Traders Association (OMATA), the then “Bakassi Boys’ and the Anambra Vigilance Service (AVS).

Not only that, armed conflicts within the Aguleri-Umuleri community in 2000 and indeed power struggle for positions and in town unions, using youth have created pockets of undesirable elements who are willing to engage in anything to make money.

Some of these guns and firearms like machine guns, AK-47, rocket launchers, double or multi-barrelled guns, pistols; pump action guns are those weapons of death procured from black markets in the state or illegal sources.

These, end up in the hands of wrong bearers including armed vigilante groups and ethnic militias. However, these illicit small arms are believed to have originated from dark spots across the West Africa sub region.

According to Emeka Umeagbalasi, the chairman of Board of Trustees (BOT), International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, guns and small arms in circulation which are estimated to be over five million are in wrong hands!

According to him, “One out of every 20 residents is in possession of illicit fire arms” due to what he called monstrous vigilantism fed by Onitsha arms’ black markets.

Before now, the black smiths in Awka used to mould assorted guns which they sell to those in need, but they have since moved beyond this as most now use sophisticated imported weapons.

It was also alleged that the popular main market in Onitsha, believed to be the largest in West Africa is home to most of these guns and firearms although other markets such as Eke-Awka and the likes have since sprung up.

When The Nation visited a place in Awka believed to be the major spot some years back, the man spotted in the area denied any knowledge of such. Speaking in low tones he said, “nobody discusses such issue again in this area but I advise you for your own good to leave the place and never to come back here again.” He advised the reporter to stop asking for people’s opinion for his own safety.

Apart from pump action guns and perhaps, double barrelled ones, every other type of gun in Anambra State is illegal even at that, the owners must register it with the security agencies before making use of them. According to a source, who pleaded anonymity, “a pump action gun is sold between N120, 000 and N150,000 depending on the one you want to purchase, while pistol also costs between N150,000 to N170,000.”

During the invasion of the state by kidnappers last year, some arms caches were discovered in the house of some suspects, and were later confiscated by the police.

Also, in 2010, Anambra State Police Command intercepted a truck load of arms and ammunition. The same happened a year later and the suspects were taken to court. The rate at which illegal arms resurface in the state has become of concern to residents wondering if the seized arms were not the same that are pumped back into circulation. This has raised fear over the gubernatorial election which is a few months down the road.

Licensed firearms dealers in Nigeria

There are unconfirmed reports alleging that policemen in the country often ‘sell weapons’ seized from bandits or those returned permit holders to the police for ‘safe keeping’, as stipulated in the licence booklet; to other criminals.

In the past, some individuals were reportedly duly licensed to sell guns and firearms. One of such is the defunct O.A.L Araba and Sons, which was located near Casino Cinema in Yaba, with another of its branch in Garage/Baale area in Apelehin, Bariga, Lagos.

Visits to these two locations show that the man, O. A. L. Araba died some years back. An elderly man in his 80s, who claimed to know the late dealer said “Araba was such a man of integrity. He never sold to criminals. He used to display his guns on the racks and we would come here to watch American movies as the actors used guns on his small TV then. At the time he died, one of his sons took over the business but I don’t know why they went out of operation. We used to speculate then that maybe his sons could not cope with the legal importation demands. But we had no evidence. However, we know that the young man later relocated to Ibadan in Oyo State. But, A. O. L. Araba and sons was renowned as an organisation that sold guns legally in Nigeria during the past half century and it had the reputation for delivering ordered weapon along with the required permit.”

Another licensed gun dealer was the defunct company called Ashamu. It was formerly housed in a stand-alone bungalow, and marked by a road-side signpost advertising guns and building materials, then in Ibadan. Visit to the location revealed that the company was no longer in operation as the people spoken with said they heard the building they now occupy used to be a ‘gun house’.

Nigeria: gun facts, figures and the law

In 2006, during the heated days of the Niger-Delta violence, reports noted that about two million small arms were in the hands of civilians, with half of the number said to have been illegally obtained. With the well-publicised prosecution of the Amnesty Programme by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration in 2009 however, the militants reportedly surrendered a total 2,760 arms, 287,445 ammunition, 18 gunboats, 763 explosives, 1,090 dynamite caps, and 3,155 magazines, among others.

Experts say that such arms and ammunitions can easily flourish in any country due to their inherent qualities such as simplicity, durability, relatively low cost, wide availability, lethality, portability and easiness to conceal, coupled with porous borders, ineffectiveness of security agencies, corruption and increasing level of poverty, particularly in developing countries such as Nigeria, make their smuggling very attractive.

In 2012 alone, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), noted in a publication that between January and June, it seized a total of 2,294 with a duty paid value of N1.8 billion within the country.

The NCS also said that 15 containers of dangerous weapons, including rocket launchers, mortars, bombs, small light arms and ammunition camouflaged as building materials, were imported into the country through Apapa, Lagos, port alone.

Analysts however claim that while the NCS may consider the seizures a big haul, their perceived feat is just a drop of water in a mighty ocean.

This proliferation has continued to pose concern to many although the situation in Nigeria may not have got to the level in the United States where school kids or gunmen often invade schools or shopping malls to indiscriminately shoot people to death.

The hope is that before the Nigerian situation degenerates to this level it would be brought under control.